Today In Music History: Rolling Stones and ODB Arrested and Deep Purple Splits

FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2013|

Posted by: Stephanie Orentas

As important as it is to keep you all up to date on the music of the fast-paced, 21st century world, knowing and understanding the stories of music past is a quintessential part of the experience of being an avid fan of anything with a little melody and rhythm. Here are a few things that happened on this day in years past and some interesting facts that you might not know about these musicians.

1. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones arrested for Assault in Warwick, Rhode Island (1972). Hours before their show at the Garden in Boston, Jagger and Richards, along with three other members of the Stones' entourage were arrested for assaulting a photographer at Greene airport. Apparently, Richards punched the photographer and Jagger was arrested for interfering with Richards' arrest. Jagger was forced to plead guilty in order to be let out on bail so the Stones could play their packed show in Boston. The show may have only been delayed for four hours, but the mug shots from that night (above) live on in infamy.

2. Deep Purple splits up (1976). Like so many others had before me, when I was learning how to play guitar, the first song I learned was Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water." The song's simple, but hard-hitting riff was the only thing I could play for a few months and I loved every second of it. What I didn't know at the time was that the band broke up following a UK tour in July of 1976. Members of the band went on to work on solo projectsnotables include David Coverdale (went on to form Whitesnake), who we can thank for the wonderful video for "Here I Go Again" which features a sexed up Tawny Kitaen shaking her ass on the hood of Whitesnake's car. The band remained split until reuniting in 1984.

3. Wu Tang Clan rapper, ODB (Ol' Dirty Bastard, aka Russell Jones), sentenced to two to four years for drug possession (2001). In the first half of 1999, Ol' Dirty Bastard was arrested three times. In March, he was arrested for drug possession, and again four days later for driving on a suspended license. In August, he was pulled over for running a red light and the police found narcotics during a search of the car. He was arrested for a number of offenses including possession of narcotics with the intent to sell. After some rocky proceedings in rehab, ODB was eventually sentenced to spend time in the federal pen. Eventually the rapper went kind of nuts, and was forced to spend time in a psychiatric hospital in NYC in 2003. After he got out, ODB still struggled with drug problems, which eventually led to his death caused by an overdose of a lethal mixture of cocaine and tramadol. A sad day for rap fans everywhere, but he did leave us with his hip hop legacy and of course, this iconic mug shot.